New oceans and another birthday passes
Wow we are ìn the Indian Ocean. What a feeling that is. The charts also say we are in the Andaman Sea. Regardless we are out of the Pacific and in a totally different realm. It’s quite the feeling and will probably take some time to get used to being in a completely different environment from the last 30 years.We were looking forward to leaving Langkawi as we wanted to find some clear water to snorkel in and check out Sage’s bottom. We have suspected damage to our centreboard. Not having proper scuba gear to spend time below the surface in murky water has made it difficult to assess how much damage. We heard that the islands between Langkawi and Thailand had clear water. We were keen to get under way so left Telaga Bay after seeing to all the clearance procedures.
Enjoying the flat sailing to Phuket
The north-east winds were blowing gently so off we headed to our first island which happened to be part of Thailand and only about 28 miles away. The two islands we were headed to were Ko Nipit and Ko Adang. There is no way to make formal entry in these islands and so chose a remote anchorage and spent the night at anchor admiring the sunset, the landscape and finally clear water. Yes, it’s true once north of Langkawi the water-cooled down a bit and the water felt refreshing and being clear felt cleaner. Still not wetsuit time thank god.
We decided to-day hop our way up to Phuket due to the large number of fish boats that work at night-time primarily catching squid. However there are lots of other fishing ranging from nets stretched between two boats, anchored floats holding nets just below the surface as well as hand lining for various types of fish. Daytime sailing is like an obstacle course avoiding scrap pieces of fishing net, watching out for hemp line floating free and staying out-of-the-way of any local fishing vessels and avoiding all the other garbage that was floating out at sea. There is everything out the from bird cages, yes for real, have sunk refrigerators, old crab traps. I guess the only thing we haven’t seen out on the ocean is a car or a tourist floating by!
We succeeded. We made out way to Phuket safely stopping at two other anchorages on the way north. One, a national park called Ko Rok Nai, and the other, Ko Pi Pi. Ko Rok Nai was a hoot. There were 7 boats anchored in the channel between the two islands. We were amazed to see so many boats in one anchorage. It was tight and luckily the wind remained light and by next morning all boats were in the right place. We headed out early so as to make it to Ko Pi Pi made famous by party animals who like raves and we were ready to fit in!
Toursit boats lined up in Ko Pi Pi Don
Ko Pi Pi was wild with boats coming and going, a shoreline bustling with small businesses, restaurants and hotels and ferries coming and going to and from everywhere. The harbour did not settle down until well after 2200hrs with the music from the shoreline shutting down at 0200hrs. We were glad to leave the next morning and make the last jump to Phuket and clearance through Ao Chalong Bay. Humoresly as we were approaching the coast of Phuket and clearance into Ao Chalong we passed by a sailing dinghy. The boat was about 2 miles off the coast of Phuket and we were on intersecting courses. As we passed by the one person onboard called out in broken english ‘and which way is to Pi Pi?’. We were amazed as this was just a small laser sailboat good for lake sailing and he was definitely headed in the right direction so we just confirmed his course and sailed on. He still had 15 miles to go, good wind but it was 1600hrs and we wondered if he had any navigation lights.
Toursit boats lined up in Ko Pi Pi Don
Now we are anchored in a lovely bay called Freedom Bay which at one time was called Relax Bay. Amazing, it’s a tiny anchorage with a gorgeous beach that is only used in the daytime by tourists coming in on longtails to spend the day baking. Lots of Russians with a smattering of french and german. No Canadians! Or, at least no Canadians that made their presence known or flew a Canadian flag which tourists from Sweden, Norway and Switzerland seem to do. Oh yes, Norwegians to that as well!
We feel blessed in Phuket with Buddha overlooking most anchorages
And all this was a 10 minute walk across the headland to Patong. Patong is party central. A carnival of exotics dosed with lady boy bars and strip neon that outdoes the most garish of shopping streets in Paris or New York. We were glad not to have to listen to or see the bacchanalian celebrations and rather enjoyed sitting out on deck under a starry night contemplating what kind of celebration Connie wanted for her birthday the next day.
Luisa as a Buddhist noviate
Being close to party central was not an attraction for Connie. Instead we spent a nice quiet morning enjoying the beach and scenery until the first boatload of longtails arrived at 0930hrs. We then decided to up anchor and had a great 12 mile sail along the Phuket coast to Kamala Beach. Yes another sandy beach and another lovely sunset. But this was special. It was Connie’s birthday and we did celebrate with a duty-free bottle of champagne from Langkawi, a dinner out at a place called ‘Grill Bill’ and another starry tropical night. Grill Bill satisfied our desire for western food for quite sometime. We both had ribs and afterwards felt like we had each eaten a cow. We had not eaten that much meat at one sitting in quite some time. All quite memorable as this was beginning to feel like the tropics we remembered.
It’s been relatively dry for the last 4 weeks, the wind has been consistent off the west coast of Phuket, the water clear for snorkeling and the food excellent and all at a reasonable cost. No complaints here.
View of Ao Chalong up at the Buddha statue
And as the world turns
Oh yes, we’ve moved again. Surprise, surprise….but we missed the Chinese New Years in Penang. We’ve missed the elections in Italy and we are missing the preparations for the election in British Columbia. Yikes, where’s life going? Ah well perhaps in a couple more years we get to grow up and participate but in the meantime we are continuing to move on.So, I think Penang is where I last left off and it was there we picked up Luisa, a friend from Italy Connie had visited in the summer of 2012 in Milan.
Luisa checking out the fishing boats’ nets.
Luisa had come to join us for the sail to Thailand and so this is where the adventure began.
We would have loved to stay in Penang but the marina was a heat sink. Straits Quay is a lovely marina but one does feel like one is in a fish bowl. On top of that it’s all concrete and when the sun shines it sucks up the heat and it takes all night to let go so the boat never cools down. I know all of you north of 35 degrees north latitude have no sympathy.
So leaving Penang we headed north to Langkawi with our Italian crew member. An uneventful 24 hours apart from tying to a mooring buoy late in the afternoon at a national park to avoid sailing at night through the fisherman’s nets. Well our plan didn’t work out well. After having sailed all day and being only 25 miles south of Langkawi we were looking forward to a nice peaceful night and waking up to a park and island to explore. Had a great dinner, cleaned up, checked the anchorage on anchor gear to ensure we were tied well to the mooring buoy. And by the way, we rarely use someone else’s mooring buoy not knowing what condition the lines are like. However, in this instance we were not willing to drop the anchor in 82 feet and have to haul it up again.
Relaxed, yes. Climbed into bed and within 30 seconds we heard the mooring buoy banging against the side of the boat. Heh, this isn’t supposed to happen. The wind usually blows one away from the mooring buoy but in this case there was a strong tidal flow and we found ourselves lying sideways to the wind and within seconds the line was stretched between the prop and the bow pulling on both ends of the boat. Panic. Wind is rising, darkness is full on us, we’re on the windward side of the island and we are tired.
OK – fast action. Cut the line carefully while taking up on a second line on the mooring. Why? We still didn’t want to go to sea. Well that’s stupid. We tried it but that didn’t work so off to sea in the middle of the night. Plan? Connie and Tony to keep 3 hour watches all night long, put up the main sail and slowly, at 2 knots, make our way up to the entrance of Langkawi and the town of Khua.
It was an uneventful night but we were hard on the wind with just the mainsail. The sky was clear, the stars out but no moon and Sage handled it all well banging away to windward in 12 knots providing good sleeping conditions below for our precious guest and off watch crew member.
Finally Langkawi – So what did we do in Langkawi?
We visited the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club to check out the facilities for our boat-sitter coming in April/May. We agreed the facilities were up to snuff:
Checked out a friends boat in storage.
Checking out our friends boat Strider which is currently in storage in Langkawi
We climbed mountains to look at the view:
Overlooking the anchorage in Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
Ate with the Russians at their favourite restaurant
Russians are in Telaga. A collection of posters at the Russian restaurant
We checked out the ikats in the resorts art gallery
A great example of a Borneo Ikat seen in a hotel art gallery
And the swimming pool at a resort close to our anchorage (check for Sage in the background)
Checking out the quality of the swimming pool in the anchorage
Checked out the facilities for the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club
Looking south from the deck of the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club
Found unique anchorages around the Langkawi archipelago
Anchorage located metres away from an inland lake accessible by a short walk through the jungle
And we ate croissants for breakfast – the first since leaving San Francisco!
Cars
A little off the sailing topic but am sure many of you who have known us a long time understand our deep respect for the automobile and how much money we spent to keep up our cars.
Our Volvo was our most treasured item but we had a great opportunity to try out a Malaysian Proton. I thought I would share a photo of our dream when we return to Canada. This is an interior shot of a little rental unit we had for a couple of days to explore the island of Langkawi from the land side.
Proton Saga car rental – interior shot of drivers seat
Penang
Penang sunrise
We finally made it to Penang. It has been quite the trip up the Straits of Malacca what with dodging fishing boats at night, working every little wind shift that occurred, working with the calms and the heat and using the current that flows with the ebb and rise of tides to our advantage.We arrived in Penang at sunset of course and took a chance at an anchorage on the north coast of Penang knowing it was very exposed to north winds. At the time, 2000hrs the wind was from the south-west and it looked like a great anchorage to get a nights sleep before proceeding in to Penang. Did actually get a good nights sleep but woke up at 0700hrs (and here it’s still dark at 0700hrs) to find the wind from the north and a nasty looking squall over to the west.
So get the hell out but can’t go in to Penang as it`s low tide and the shallow banks around Penang prevented an approach to Straits Quay Marina. So we just dawdled along watching the fishboats, ferries and sea eagles while we made a full breakfast. Eventually we made it in to Straits Quay Marina
Straits Quay Marina – like being moored in a fishbowl but very friendly staff
which is one of the few marinas left in Penang of useable quality.
We had read of the Penang City Marina which is located next to the main ferry terminal.
Penang City Marina
It reputedly had billiard tables, laundry rooms, library etc but as you can see from the picture there isn’t much left. They didn’t plan on protecting the marina from the ferry wash and over an 8 year period the ferry wash took its toll on the docks and pilings eventually ripping everything apart. That’s not to mention the silting of the harbour so no-one with decent draft could get in!
Pilings are all that’s left of the city marina
Penang was great. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site and the city still maintains many of the old colonial buildings as useable spaces. There’s a lot of renovation taking place, art galleries galore as well as museums. That’s not to leave out the incredible food on the streets particularly in Little India.
I can’t say Malaysian food counts high on the culinary calendar so as Indian food becomes more available that’s where we go. Not only are there are great street stalls in Penang there are restaurants everywhere with street life drifting in and out of restaurants and all the scents of spices and herbs mingling in the night air to tempt the senses.
One of the best museums we went to was the Peranakan Museum.
Peranakan Museum Poster – Penang
“Peranakan Chinese and Baba-Nyonya are terms used for the descendants of late 15th and 16th-century Chinese immigrants to the Indonesian archipelago and British Malaya (now Malaysia).” It is an amazing private museum and collection. Not only does it feature an incredible temple
Detail of temple door
but also the home of several generations of Peranakans who lived in the area.
There is also an incredible collection of jewelry from the different time periods the home was in use. In WW 11 the home was taken over by the Japanese and after the war reverted to the government. However, it was eventually purchased privately and now run as a museum.
Dining room at Peranakan Museum
Peranakan Museum – Penang
Temple door at museum
Inside Peranakan Museum
Unfortunately our stay in Penang was short but we will return. It needs more time and the combination of the old part called Georgetown, the tree-lined avenues and the art galleries and museums beckons us back.
Our next stop is Langkawi, a duty-free port and vacation playground for Malaysians, people from the Middle East and Japanese.
Waiting at the bus stop – Penang
Malaysian Muslim woman
Gong Xi Fa Cai
The Year of the Snake
Yes, it’s getting close to the New Year and the decorations are out in full force. And I always thought the west overdid Christmas decorations but it’s nothing like the decorations here in preparation for the new year.
We left Singapore with a lovely easterly wind that shot us up past all the anchored ships and around the corner into the Malacca Straits. Singapore to Penang routing
It is always daunting when navigating the Singapore Straits. Departing was no exception. We remembered well the first time to enter the Straits on the trip over from Borneo. Arriving at sunset 25nm north of the straits was not the best strategy but we decided to enter anyway. It was the lights from the anchored ships that gave us confidence we could make the approach as the lighted ships at anchor provided enough light and made it easy to determine if another ship was actually moving or at anchor.Our first destination was Port Dickson but we did manage to get a night at anchor in the Water Islands just south of Melaka.
The challenge came on entering the straits when we had to get to the right side of the channel to place ourselves between the ships and the shoreline. Timing our moves carefully we cut across the outgoing ships, sailed mid-channel for a while to asses the incoming ships and then made a dash for the other side of the channel. I likened it to standing in the middle of the 17 lane 401 freeway north of Toronto and then making a dash to the other side of the highway and occasionally standing on the white line as a transport trailer rushes by then making it to the next lane!
We did finally make it to the other side and travelling inbound followed behemoth ocean tankers travelling only slightly faster than ourselves until we made it by dawn to the spot to check in (see photos on previous post) and from there only 2 nm to One 15 Marina.
So on leaving we planned to leave in full daylight and hope we could make it north of the Straits of Johor before night fell. We were successful, the wind remained and we sailed on up the Straits of Malacca towards Port Dickson anchoring at night along the shoreline eventually reaching Port Dickson after a few days.
Port Dickson Marina
Port Dickson was a wonderfully quiet and peaceful marina a little ways from town with a few foreign boats and a few tourist boats plying the beaches that line this part of the Malaysian coastline. Quite a difference from the Borneo coastline where we were dodging oil rigs and small fishing boats. A few days later we were off to Penang. Leaving Port Dickson we had about 250 miles to go to Penang. Winds were light to moderate and mostly from the west or southwest with numerous calm periods and lots of fish boats to avoid at night-time. All a little stressful and tiring and in fact we find offshore one week trips sometimes less stressful and tiring as one gets used to a routine. However, there really isn’t enough time to get into a routine on a 200 mile trip. We were headed to Penang to meet up with our friend flying in from Italy. Luisa was flying directly in to Penang and will be with us for a month while we slowly weave our way through the islands of northern Malaysia, into Southern Thailand to Phuket and perhaps up the west side of Thailand to the Myanmar border.
Luisa and Connie
Prize Offer
An update on the prize offered in the last post.
I did say the first person to respond to a photo question would receive a prize. I did neglect to say the first person to respond with the correct answer would get a prize.
So, Mr. Wayne Holt, the first to respond to the question will be the winner of a booby prize. I did explain to Mr. Holt the assumption is that you provide the CORRECT answer!
Congratulations Mr. Holt! But as I said I am still waiting for the right answer.
Catching up
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- Sarawak parliament building in Kuching
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- Sarawak parliament
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- Kuching visitor information centre
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- Mosaic on public walkway in Kuching
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- Tony and Connie in Kuching (Photo by Evelyne)
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- Santubong mountain from our anchorage 30km from Kuching.
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- And there truly was a 600 metre drop straight down into the Indonesian rainforest
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- View overlooking Kalamantan from 2000metres
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- Another view from up on high
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- Need I say more. Hours spent in the cool waters of the Borneo highlands
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- A chance to power wash the salt off ourselves
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- Our good friends Evelyne and Herve on our way up
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- Herve on the way up to the waterfall
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- What is Herve holding? It’s a contest so first to answer gets a prize.
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- Talking politics with the local villagers in the Borneo highlands longhouse. Can Connie ever leave that behind?
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- Welcome to Singapore. This is how immigration and customs is handled in Singapore. Go to the islands, hand over the paper and wait for processing then pick them up the same way and proceed. Great system.
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- One of the many floating obstructions in Singapore Straits. This and many more obstructions continues for 60 miles from the north side to the south side of the straits
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- On the way from the One 15 Marina through the locks to the Murphy-Ives family home
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- Chris Ives-Murphy at rest?
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- Sascha Ives-Murphy
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- Photo by professional photographer Sebastian Murphy Ives, Singapore
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- Emmy Ives-Murphy
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- Emmy Murphy-Ives at play
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- Professional photographer Sebastian Ives-Murphy about to gallop away at the Polo Club, Singapore
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- KK Ives-Murphy about to execute a canter. Good on ya girl.
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- Shopping for Connie’s new sandals in Singapore
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- Public art in Singapore. It’s everywhere to make up for the loss of soul?
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- Get ready for Chinese New Year.
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- Good-bye Singapore.
Here are a few pictures to cover the period in which we have been out of touch:
We were in Kuching, Borneo when we went on a few expedition trips with other yachties. This was one of the most spectacular spots we managed to get to. Beautiful views overlooking Kalamantan south to Indonesia from the border on top of the world.
A few more in the gallery to peruse
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- Public art in Singapore. It’s everywhere to make up for the loss of soul?
Where have we been?
I guess it has been a while since my last posting. We have not gone very far but we have managed to keep ourselves busy keeping out-of-the-way of the crocodiles in the various anchorages and avoiding the pythons in those places where we have been at a marina. Seems crocs like cloudy water on the banks of rivers where mangroves run rampant. Pythons seem to like the warm wood the docks provide for sunbathing. I have to say though I think it is the pythons that concern me the most. That comes from having been to a museum in Bandar Seri Bagwan, Brunei where they had a stuffed python that had a head double the size of any self-respecting golden retriever. That particular python had been killed after swallowing one child and one male adult at one sitting!
Enough of that kind of stuff. There have been too many wonderful things we have managed to do and see to focus on what could be.
We moved on to Miri for Christmas. A small town but with a marina where we stayed for the holiday season. We helped organize a Christmas dinner on the docks for about 15 boats. Even managed to find a turkey and everyone pitched in with traditional Christmas dishes representing the Philippines, Canada, United States, Sweden, France, Norway, Holland etc. etc. I couldn’t believe there was even turkey left over which was great for us!
After feasting ourselves on Christmas goodies we stumbled out of the marina headed for Kuching. It’s about a 250 mile journey along the coastline well-known for not having reliable winds. We struggled along interspersing the sailing with a little bit of motoring. On New Years Eve day we were within telephone range of the shoreline to make a call to a friend already at anchor in the Santubong River. Our french sailing friends Evelyn and Herve promised to cook us a New Years Eve dinner if we could make it in. Having no wind we decided to motor and 16 hours later made it into the anchorage at 1700hrs just in time for dinner onboard a 50 foot Dutch catamaran called Isis. Again a mix of crew 2 boats from Australia, one French, one American, ourselves and then the Dutch. Despite the pelting rain we had a great time staying dry on the back deck of the catamaran.
New Year’s Eve was a great welcome to Kuching. Kuching is probably one of the most pleasant towns in Brunei. It’s population is about 150,000, situated on a river and has managed to build beautiful walkways along the river’s edge, has a stupendous parliament building as it’s the capital of Sarawak, one of two provinces in Borneo. We spent out time there avoiding the rain, visiting museums and stocking up on food items for the trip to Singapore.
Our departure was delayed due to bad weather but 10 days later we finally set sail for Singapore. Turned out to be one of the roughest and windiest passages but at least we sailed there. We arrived at the north entrance to Singapore Straits at sunset.
OK – tune it for the adventure thru the Singapore Straits. I don’t have time right now to finish this off and the next posting will have pictures…..till later
Christmas, caves, turkeys and pythons
So what is the connection between christmas, caves, turkeys and pythons? Myself I am not sure but just a few things that come to mind as things that have happened over the last few days.
I guess it’s probably best to go in chronological order and start with caves. These are the Niah Caves located in Niah National Park.
Hunting for birds nests in Niah caves
It all started out with a bunch of itinerant sailors thinking it would be a good idea to get a rental van with Tony as driver and head out to the Niah Caves. So, I got everyone up at 0600hrs one morning and by 0630hrs we were on the road to the Niah Caves. We did stop for breakfast on the way. Some managed to wolf down some laksa others had naan with curried dahl and others simply a glass of cold water. We managed to make it to the beginning of the 3km trail by 0800hrs. We wanted to take advantage of the cooler morning weather and do the trek up before the real heat of the day. However, without wind and temperatures in the mid 30s we were all quite sweat soaked by the time we arrived at the caves.
They were worth it although a lot of people favour the Mulu Caves which are located a 45 minute flight from Miri and into the central Borneo region in Sarawak. We all agreed that these were quite spectacular and have enough history behind them to prove to be quite haunting. I cannot imagine living up in these caves and heading out to hunt each day.
Inside the Niah Caves
Ah well don’t have to worry about doing that considering it happened about 40,000 years ago. Today the caves are a major tourist attraction but are also used in the harvesting of birds nests for the soup they make in China. A very lucrative business and for which there are many caves in Borneo which are a major source for this raw material.So, at the end of the day, which came early, we headed back across the river and to the national park headquarters where we had parked the van. I do have to compliment the Malaysian government for their parks. All three of the National Parks we have visited have been very well maintained. They provide a very reasonably priced vacation spot for Malays and tourists with camping spots and for those looking for a little more comfort air-conditioned cottages.
Returning from Niah Caves
So it was time to leave and make the trek back to the marina. However, seeing as we had a vehicle and the marina is quite a way from town we decided that to stop at the foreign import store to see if we could pick up a turkey for a Christmas pot luck!
We were in luck. Yes, there sat waiting for us the most beautiful but not large, 4kg, butterball frozen turkey. We snatched it up, paid for it and said we would be back on Monday to pick it up.
So that’s how the Christmas pot luck got started. Yes, Connie volunteered to organize the menu, solicit people to participate and then she volunteered me to conduct the Theiving Secret Santa.
So Christmas day saw one boat shoe-horning the 4kg turkey into their oven, others peeling potatoes and still others dreaming up what great recipe to share from their country. In the end we had people from Australia, Korea, Canada, United States, Holland, Germany, Philippines, France, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and New Zealand. A great cosmopolitan group of participants. The food was excellent and believe it or not there was still turkey left over after everyone vacated.
Christmas Pot luck in Miri Marina
I know you have all been waiting to find out what is the python part. Well, it’s really not that exciting considering we have been dodging crocodiles in anchorages, rats on the shoreline, macaques in the trees, sharks in the water but now we have to be worried about pythons on the dock. Yes, pythons are becoming a common sight on the docks. For some reason they like coming down the ramp at the marina and sunning themselves on the docks which get very hot during the daytime due to the dark wood on the pontoons. No-one yet has had a major confrontation but it’s certainly in the back of everyone’s mind when they walk the docks at night. And of course, no-one wants the pythons to use the mooring lines to climb along and into the boat in the late afternoon. One boat has already had a stray cat come onboard to have its kittens!
For us it’s time to head out. We are off to Kuching shortly and now just waiting for the right weather to show up.
Happy holidays
May all readers of this blog have a great holiday season and we hope all have a prosperous and successful new year.
Sage on sail 